Existing wire cable trays include, in mesh form, wires of two different types, namely, on the one hand, longitudinal wires, usually called warp wires, which run, longitudinally, in rectilinear or quasi rectilinear manner, over the full length of the tray, and, on the other hand, disposed transversely from place to place along these longitudinal wires, and appropriately attached thereto, U-shaped transverse wires, usually called weft wires, the combination globally forming three panels, in practice plane or substantially plane panels, namely a bottom panel and two lateral panels, usually called flanges.
These wire cable trays are routinely used, in the manner of a trough, to support, house and protect elongate members such as electrical cables or the like, or even tubes, for instrumentation or fluid transport, for example.
By electrical cables is meant here, and hereinafter, not only cables for transporting and distributing electrical power but also cables and fibers for transmitting information by electrical, optical or other means.
In everything that follows, to facilitate the description, electrical cables will be referred to; however, everything that is stated with regard to electrical cables is of course valid for any elongate member.
With regard to electrical cables, wire cable trays have many advantages for which they are appreciated by electrical installers, and in particular the advantages of easy installation, and therefore of economy, of flexibility, because electrical cables can be led out through any of their meshes, of transparency, and therefore of identifying the electrical cables, of ventilation, of cleanliness, of safety, both for the electrical cables and for users, and of performance.
However, at present, fixing electrical cables to one or other of their panels, which is necessary for holding the electrical cables in place, and which is effected in practice with the aid of cable ties looped transversely around one or the other of their longitudinal wires, gripping one or more of the electrical cables, is not always totally satisfactory.
One reason for this is that their wires necessarily cross each other at different levels, the longitudinal wires being in practice on the outside of the transverse wires.
As a result of this, if they are insufficiently rigid, the electrical cables follow the corresponding changes in level.
In fact, it is frequently possible to observe that the electrical cables are subject to an undulating deformation, especially in the case of electrical cables of relatively small diameter.
Apart from the fact that this undulating deformation might sometimes be considered as unesthetic, it can also prejudice the service life of the electrical cables and/or the quality of their performance.
This applies in particular to capillary internal wiring electrical cables for networks for interconnecting data processing hardware, in which the diameter of the electrical conductors is only a few tenths of a millimeter.
Also, regardless of the nature and/or the diameter of the electrical cables, the cable ties holding them in place can move unintentionally along the longitudinal wire they are wrapped around, and as a result of this the holding of the electrical cables in place is not fully controlled.
A general object of the present invention is an arrangement that avoids these drawbacks and has other advantages.
To avoid those drawbacks, there has already been proposed, in particular in the document WO 99/06746, a wire cable tray of the kind including, in mesh form, wires of two different types, namely, on the one hand, longitudinal wires, which run longitudinally the whole of its length, and, on the other hand, disposed transversely from place to place along said longitudinal wires, and appropriately attached thereto, U-shaped transverse wires, the combination forming, globally, in the manner of a trough, three panels, namely, a bottom panel and two lateral panels, said wire cable tray being equipped locally, on any of its panels, with at least one accessory, referred to herein purely for convenience as a fixing accessory, including, on the one hand, attachment means by means of which it is adapted to be fastened to the panel that it equips, and, on the other hand, at least one hole that passes completely through it and by means of which it is adapted to receive any fixing member, such as a clip, bolt, etc.
A first advantage of the above fixing accessory is to furnish the electrical cables, at any location chosen by the installer, with a more extended support than that provided by a single wire, the fixing accessory taking the general form of a plate and thereby offering the electrical cables an advantageously plane support.
With this kind of fixing accessory, whether it straddles one of the longitudinal wires, more generally one of the outside wires, or is inserted into one of the meshes that the latter form with the transverse wires, more generally the inside wires, its free surface is level with the generatrix of the inside wires farthest away from the outside wires, with no difference in level relative thereto.
Thus undulating deformation of the electrical cables between their successive supports is advantageously avoided.
According to the above document, the fixing accessory includes, in a cruciform arrangement, to constitute its attachment means, on the one hand, a first attachment surface, through which it bears on at least one outside wire, and, on the other hand, a second attachment surface, which faces toward the first attachment surface and by which it is engaged under at least two inside wires.
An object of the present invention is to propose a cable tray of the above kind in which the fixing accessory can be attached to the cable tray via two wires of the cable tray that are parallel and of the same type, namely two longitudinal wires or two transverse wires, as a result of which the fixing accessory is easy to manufacture.
Thus, in accordance with the invention, a fixing accessory, intended to be fixed locally, by elastic clamping, to a cable tray of the above kind, includes, to constitute its attachment means, on the one hand, a first attachment surface, which is intended to be engaged under at least one wire, and, on the other hand, a second attachment surface, which faces toward the first attachment surface and is intended to bear on at least two wires of the same type as said wire.
The fixing accessory in accordance with the invention simply attaches to the wire cable tray that it equips of its own accord, by way of a simple clipping action, gripping at least one wire of the cable tray, without any other auxiliary fixing means or member.
Additionally, the fixing accessory is advantageously removable, so that it can be demounted and recovered, if required.
Furthermore, the fixing accessory according to the invention is advantageously locked in position on the wire cable tray it equips, as much transversely as longitudinally, as is, likewise and advantageously, through its intermediary, the fixing member or members it receives.
In particular, thanks to this fixing accessory, the cable ties used to hold the electrical cables in position are advantageously immobilized longitudinally on the wire cable tray, with the benefit of improved and enduring control of the retention of the electrical cables.
However, over and above the facility offered in this way of using these cable ties, the fixing accessory according to the invention has other advantages.
In particular, in the same manner as the accessory described in the document previously cited, it is possible, if required, to install, parallel to each other, inside the wire cable tray, two separator angle-irons defining a separate compartment inside the wire cable tray, which can be used with advantage to house particular electrical cables, especially if they must be provided with a metallic shield, and which may require to be closed by a cover.
The fixing accessory according to the invention can equally be used with advantage with hangers from which the assembly is suspended or brackets supporting it.
As a general rule, the fixing accessory can further be used to fix mechanical or electrical devices whose fixing part does not correspond to the geometry of a mesh of the wire cable tray, in particular by virtue of being smaller than the latter.
The accessory advantageously has a U-shaped section with a core and two flanges, the core including a groove parallel to the flanges, the bottom of the groove being on the same side of the core of the U-shape as the flanges.
The first attachment surface preferably includes a tongue, referred to as an attachment tongue, parallel to the groove and defined by a U-shaped cut-out formed at least in the bottom of the groove.
The U-shaped cut-out is advantageously also formed in the edges of the groove, to a depth substantially equal to the diameter of the wire under which the attachment tongue is engaged.
The second attachment surface is preferably divided between at least two attachment surfaces situated on respective opposite sides of an attachment tongue and each formed on each of the flanges of the fixing accessory.
The second attachment surface advantageously includes a notch, referred to as an attachment notch, formed in the edge of at least one flange.
The attachment notch is preferably disposed in line with the portion of the attachment tongue near its root.
The attachment tongue is advantageously elastically deformable and each attachment notch is advantageously flanked by an access ramp.
The base of each access ramp preferably includes a notch, referred to as a locating notch.
In a preferred embodiment, the fixing accessory includes two attachment tongues, each associated with a pair of attachment surfaces.
The accessory advantageously includes at least two holes of different types, namely at least one circular hole and at least one oblong hole.
The accessory preferably takes the general form of a plate.
The accessory advantageously has a rectangular contour.
The accessory according is preferably made of sheet metal.
The invention also provides a wire cable tray equipped with the above fixing accessory.
The wire cable tray is advantageously equipped with a plurality of fixing accessories, at least some of which are aligned, staggered from place to place along its length.
The longitudinal wires are advantageously on the outside of the transverse wires and the first attachment surface of the fixing accessory is advantageously engaged under two longitudinal wires.